Mark your calendar for Seattle Milk Fund’s Benefit Luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Join us to celebrate the hard-won achievements of our alumni and current students. We are proud to host King County Executive Dow Constantine for our Read more...

Volunteer Mentor Resources

Every quarter, Volunteer Mentors give an update on their students. Volunteer Mentors are required to submit the form below on a quarterly basis. If you have questions about the quarterly report, please contact Merette Sullivan at program@seattlemilkfund.org.

Quarterly Report

Student Name:

FirstLast

Mentor Name:

FirstLast

Student's School:

Quarter:

How many times did you contact this student this quarter?*

Approximately how many hours did you volunteer this quarter for this student?*

Student Questions

How are things going? Are there any successes, concerns, or problems you’d like to share?

Are there any changes to your contact information?

Did you feel like you were able to keep up with your course requirements this quarter?

Are you considering a change of major? Have there been any changes in your overall academic plan?

Will you be graduating after this quarter? If not, how many quarters do you have left before graduation?

How does your child like their childcare situation? Do you have any concerns with your current childcare?

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A most grateful thank you to our 63 donors who gifted Seattle Milk Fund with $8,553 during GiveBIG. We recently received our stretch check from The Seattle Foundation and our total comes to $9,272.69 for 2015’s GiveBIG campaign. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends support our families each year during our spring campaign. Thank you!

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On a windy evening in the summer of 1992, Zuhra, along with her mother, six sisters, and brother, fled their home in Kabul City, Afghanistan. The civil war had caused them to leave abruptly and find safety in a province north of Afghanistan. What she and her family thought would be a couple of months of refuge, turned into decades of living as refugees and immigrants in different cities across the globe.

Zuhra reminisces about her home, “I have memories of my neighborhood, friends, classmates and our green lawn where we would play with our cousins. I remember a huge house, a happy family, a cohesive community, our local market, a family doctor who knew how to pronounce my name and my mother’s delicious meals.”

Her father had left the family earlier and found asylum in the Netherlands. They would be apart from their father for nearly a decade.

In 2001, Zuhra and her mother and siblings moved to the U.S. The family found it hard to acclimate to the way of life in the U.S. It was difficult to find a community to belong to, especially after September 11th. And the only jobs available were minimum wage opportunities. Zuhra’s parents were professionals in Afghanistan, her mother an elementary school teacher and her father, an engineer.

In 2003, a few years after the family arrived in the U.S., they were able to sponsor their father to come to the U.S.

When Zuhra’s father arrived in Seattle, he couldn’t find work in his field. He was proud of his degree and couldn’t see himself working for a minimum wage. This caused him severe anguish, his mental well-being was deteriorating. His family was worried about him and suggested he get help. Zuhra was in high school and her siblings were all working full-time to pay for the family’s rent and keep afloat.

One morning, Zuhra and her siblings awoke to screaming. They found their mother being stabbed by their father.

Zuhra remembers, “With all the other losses that we had faced, my mother’s death was a sorrow that touched our lives tremendously. My mother was the cornerstone of our home.”

The siblings went through their father’s trial and have had no contact with their father since he was sentenced.

Zuhra’s older brother took the events harshly, and a year later, passed away after suffering a brain aneurysm at the age of 29. At this time, Zuhra had just begun to take classes at the University of Washington. She had to leave school and take two jobs to help support her family.

Zuhra went back to Afghanistan in 2005 to marry a childhood friend through an arranged marriage. The couple returned to the U.S. and welcomed twin boys in 2008. They were born prematurely and Zuhra and her husband spent many hours in the NICU during the first few weeks of their sons’ lives. Her experience with the nurses in the NICU inspired Zuhra to go back to college and become a nurse.

Zuhra views becoming a nurse as, “The best decision of my life. To go back to school and gain the education allows my boys reach their potential, too. Now I can be an advocate for my patients in the field of medicine.”

After enrolling in pre-requisite nursing classes at North Seattle College, she contacted Seattle Milk Fund inquiring about assistance with child care for her twins. Seattle Milk Fund provided child care and family support grants for three years of schooling. Her twins recently started kindergarten and are thriving in their new school. Their ability to go to preschool, helped prepare them for their own educational journey.

This past spring, Zuhra graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor in Science of Nursing degree, and now works as a Registered Nurse at Providence Mount St. Vincent, a long-term care facility in West Seattle.

Zuhra’s journey of strength and perseverance is remarkable to many. She believes her background has taught her, “Empathy, acceptance, and appreciation for life. We were able to see the world from a survivor’s point of view and appreciate the simple things in life. The negative forces around us, helped us to form positive and stronger bonds among our family.”

Zuhra looked up to her mother as a wise, kind, compassionate, and intelligent role model. It’s very clear that her mother’s traits were passed down and have inspired Zuhra to graduate and become a nurse.

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Seattle Milk Fund’s 2013-2014 Annual Report Card will be mailed mid-February to our friends. In the meantime it is available online, feel free to download it here. Thank you for supporting Seattle Milk Fund’s local families.

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Seattle Milk Fund is delighted to welcome Elizabeth, into the Child Care and Family Support Program, as a new grantee. Elizabeth’s education journey is one of love, inspiration and determination.

A few years ago, Elizabeth and her fiancée decided to have a baby. Having a baby changes your life, and it couldn’t have been truer for Elizabeth and her fiancée. About 10 hours after her daughter’s birth, Elizabeth noticed her daughter was having a seizure. The nurse thought it was just a fidgety newborn moving about, but her mother’s intuition and experience with her own epilepsy told her something else was going on. Elizabeth asked the nurse to check on her and they witnessed four more seizures. Her seizures had been a sign of a stroke, and two days later she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.

After the initial shock of their newborn’s diagnosis, Elizabeth and her fiancée knew they had to be strong and move forward for the sake of their daughter’s well-being.

Elizabeth recalls saying at the time, “Okay, so where do we go from here? What do we need to do? She is our baby and if she is going to be in a wheelchair then we will bedazzle it with jewels and we will take care of her no matter what.”

The new parents took pride in the fact that they didn’t care what the situation was, only that she was their baby and they would love and take care of her no matter what.

Their baby is now a toddler. With the help of in-home therapy and the use of braces since she was about two months old, she is overcoming the odds and is doing better than ever expected by her doctors. “She is walking and talking and full of life. She is absolutely perfect,” Elizabeth lovingly boasts.

Elizabeth wants a better life for her family and is following her dreams, “I hope one day after seeing me strive toward my goals and ambitions, my daughter will want to do the same.”

About six months after the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth decided to enroll in college full-time to begin her higher education. With her positive attitude and her daughter as her inspiration, Elizabeth has excelled in the Social and Human Services program at Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech).

Elizabeth’s advisor at LWTech glows about her star student, “She has made the Dean’s List each quarter she has been enrolled. I have no doubt that that with the motivation Elizabeth displays and her determination to reach her goals that she will become a clinical psychologist.”

Seattle Milk Fund provides Elizabeth, and all students who are accepted into the program, with child care funding and other family support needs. Seattle Milk Fund has also paired Elizabeth up with a volunteer mentor who is a part of her support system while she is in school.

As a full-time student, Elizabeth is relieved to have found child care help, “Seattle Milk Fund makes it easier for me to go to school because they take a huge financial burden off of me.”

Elizabeth’s journey to achieving her educational goal is just beginning. After finishing her Social and Human Services Associates Degree at LWTech, she plans to transfer to Seattle Central College for their Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Applied Behavioral Science. She then hopes to apply to Washington State University’s Clinical Psychology Graduate Program. We are eager to keep you updated on Elizabeth’s story. Stay tuned!

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Passionate about helping families? We are looking for your energy! Share your time and talents with us and get those feel-good feelings that come with giving back to your community. From one-time event volunteers to periodic committee or office work, we are looking for every kind of volunteer. We’d love to hear from you! Please complete this form and we’ll be in touch soon.

Open volunteer positions:

Volunteer Mentor – This is a great, flexible position that allows you to directly connect with the students in our program. This at-home position requires, on average, one hour of volunteering per month. Our mentors support our students and their families throughout the academic quarter by providing encouragement, resources, and guidance as they progress towards graduation. By volunteering for this position, you will be offering our students the best preparation for life after graduation — giving them a much needed boost for today’s competitive job market. You can read about our current students and their successes here.

Event Volunteers – We are always looking for volunteers at our events. From our Annual Luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 22 to CookieFest on Saturday, Dec. 12, we’d love to have you be a part of the team! Check out our calendar to see other upcoming events.

If you would like to volunteer for any of these positions, or be a part of our volunteer pool, please contact us at program@seattlemilkfund.org or 206-526-7944.

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Crabfeed-2011-4

2011 Rays Boathouse table

2011 Renton Tech table

2011 Volunteers with cookies

bakers get ready cookiefest 2010

2011 Bothell High School table

2011 Cookiefest

2011 PCC table and Cheri Zehner

2011 Pink's table

SMF Work Party web

24 Famlilies receive Thanksgiving Baskets

2012 Thanksgiving volunteers

Terry and Wreath Work Party

Jennie and Bonnie Wreath Work Party

Elaine and wreath work party

cookiefest SPU girls

CookieFest Volunteer

Kindred CookieFest

Seattle Milk Fund Story Bank

Students and Program Alumni

We are gathering stories, anecdotes, and memories about Seattle Milk Fund. We would love to hear how Seattle Milk Fund is making or has made a difference for you and your family?

Seattle Milk Fund Members and Friends

We are gathering stories, anecdotes, and memories about Seattle Milk Fund. We would love to hear how Seattle Milk Fund has been a part of your life. Please share your Seattle Milk Fund story with us...

We may use your story or quote to demonstrate Seattle Milk Fund's positive effect on the community for funders and future grantees. Please list below how you would like to be quoted. As a rule we use people's first names only. If you would prefer for us not to use your first name, please note how you would like us to quote you (student, alumni, member, volunteer, friend, etc.).

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We have several volunteer opportunities open over the holidays. If you are interested in volunteering for our Thanksgiving Baskets event on Nov. 20-22 or at CookieFest on Dec. 13, feel free to call us at the office to learn more at 206-526-7944. You can also sign up for upcoming events, here.

Volunteers needed for the following events:

Our Thanksgiving Basket program is provided to our students and their families as part of our family support portion of their child care grant. All families receive a basket of Thanksgiving food, a turkey and a $50 grocery gift card. We need volunteers to assist with setting up the food that has been donated. A big thank you to National Frozen Foods and the Kiwanis Club of Industrial Seattle for providing the food for the baskets.

Our annual CookieFest event is a cookie-lovers dream! Seattle’s best bakers and bakeries come together to donate thousands and thousands of holiday-inspired cookies each year to benefit Seattle Milk Fund. We need volunteers to help set up, staff tables, and help people pick out their favorite cookies!